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Cream of Clam Soup

A soup made from clams, onion, butter, flour, milk, and optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cream of Clam Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the clams

  1. Boil the clams in their juice for 20 minutes, skimming any foam that rises to the top.

  2. Add the minced onion and continue boiling for another 20 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate pot, melt the butter and stir in the flour.

  2. Gradually add the hot milk to the butter and flour mixture.

Combine and finish

  1. Combine the milk mixture with the clam mixture, seasoning with red pepper.

  2. Do not cook after adding the clams; just mix well and heat through.

  3. For a richer soup, stir in some hot cream before serving.

  4. Strain the soup through a strainer before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and body of the soup.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth as it cooks in the clam liquid.
Butter
Carries flavor and enriches the texture of the base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth, body-giving base.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid that gives the soup its smooth texture.

The step that matters

Heating after combining the milk and clams. Once the milk mixture and clams are joined, keep the heat gentle. Boiling dairy can curdle or scorch, and overcooked clams turn rubbery and tough.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, butter, flour, milk, pepper, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, butter, flour, milk, pepper, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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